Judge Allows Copyright Claims Over Technology Used on Disney’s ‘Avengers’

Is it possible that some of the entertainment industry’s biggest blockbusters from the past decade — Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Deadpool, among others — could be wiped from this Earth? That might sound an outlandish and alarmist prospect, but one VFX firm is alleging that Hollywood has used “stolen” facial motion-capture technology and is demanding that these motion pictures literally be impounded and destroyed. On Monday, a federal judge gave this plaintiff a green light to go after Disney, Paramount and Fox for vicarious and contributory copyright infringement. Rearden, founded by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Steve Perlman, was previously involved in a complicated fight against Digital Domain 3.0 and the Chinese company, Shenzhenshi Haitiecheng Science and Technology Co., Ltd. Ultimately, Rearden came out ahead on tech known as the MOVA Contour Program, which has been used to capture the motion of the human face to create computer graphic images in movies. What happened next was follow-up lawsuits against various studios that had contracted with Digital Domain to use the technology. In February, U.S District Court Judge Jon Tigar allowed Rearden to move forward with its claims that the studios violated trademarks as well as claims the studios induced patent infringement. However, Tigar rejected copyright claims in his earlier decision. The following month, Tigar amended the complaint and tested a new copyright theory. This one generates more success. Originally, Rearden alleged that it owned the copyright in a software program’s output and that as such, CG characters in blockbuster films… [Read full story]